Thursday, October 15, 2009

Spider Invasion - this week's Six Minute English topic

Hello. And a warm welcome to all new students visiting this Blog. I'd like to remind the world that this Blog is open to everyone, but especially to anyone learning English as a foreign language. You are all encouraged to make this Blog interactive by sending your feedback, either to the Comments section at the end of each posting, or to the Tag Board at the top of the right-hand column.

There's great emphasis here on Listening, as many students find this to be one of the most difficult aspects of learning a new language. So we will start off with an exercise from Six Minute English. Today it is about Spiders and Arachnophobia.

Read the questions first, then click on the link to the BBC's Learning English web site, listen, and try to answer the questions. Send your answers to the Comments section or, if your answers are very short, to the Tag Board.

Question 1 (official): How many known spider species are there in the world today? Is it:(a) 2000; (b) 20,000; (c) 40,000 ?Question 2: Are most spiders in the UK dangerous or harmless ?3. Why are there more spiders than usual in the UK this autumn?4. How did arachnophobe Dave Clark cure his fear of spiders?Dave now works at the London Zoo where he runs course to help people cure their arachnophobia.5. How long, according to Dave, does it take someone to get rid of their fear of spiders?6. What is Dave's success rate?Now listen to the programme. Then post your answers to the comments section or the Tag Board.

Coming soon: "How To Use This Blog" for new students.More soon! - Mike

1) (c)2) Harmless.3) Because of a combination of environmental factors.4) He went “cold turkey” or he used the technique “flooding” (it's the same thing) holding a big spider on his hand.5) 3 hours.6) Over 80%.

I’m arachnophobe and I think that if I attend Dave Clark’s course probably I’ll be in the failure rate.